1. Technical Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates in general to templates for installing pole bases. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a pole base bolt template for providing an easy and accurate means to hold pole anchor bolts and a rebar cage in a pole base form while pouring concrete or other filling material into the form for the future installation of a pole.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pole base bolt templates allow contractors to easily install pole anchor bolts and rebar cages in pole bases. Pole bases, which are used to support among other items, street lights, parking lot lights, street signs, parking lot signs, traffic signals, flag poles, lighting fixtures, and other column-like structures generally comprising a concrete base including anchor bolts, rebar cages, and conduit stubs, and generally support any column made of concrete, metal, wood, or other suitable materials. Pole base bolt templates allow pole anchor bolts and rebar cages to be set accurately in the concrete base form at the correct bolt circle alignment, angle, projection (height) and in a level arrangement. Ideally, pole base bolt templates come in a variety of sizes to accommodate different form sizes, and include means to allow for bolt placement to meet various bolt patterns as well as different bolt sizes for use in various situations.
Conventional templates for supporting anchor bolts and rebar cages in pole base installations suffer from considerable drawbacks. For example, these templates often require additional materials to support the template, require extensive modification for each application, or are custom-made for each installation and generally not reusable. These limitations frequently make such conventional templates expensive, both in terms of material cost and labor cost. Such conventional templates are typically cumbersome to use, often requiring additional manpower to pour and finish the base. Additionally, such conventional templates frequently yield inconsistent results. Pole bases constructed using these crude templates frequently suffer misalignment of the anchor bolts, un-centered rebar cages, leaning bases, unfinished tops of bases, bottom leveling nuts buried in the concrete base, inaccurate bolt projections, and the necessity of re-working the pole base, thereby increasing the labor and material costs. Also, conventional templates must be removed during the concrete finishing process in order to provide access for the installers to smoothly finish the concrete on top of the pole base and remove the bottom-leveling nut from the concrete for future use. This premature removal of the template can compromise the structural integrity of the base as well as disturb the alignment of the anchor bolts and rebar cage. That is to say, the conventional template itself often impedes the ability of workers to reach the top of the pole base in order to smooth the pole base concrete, as well as to save the bottom nuts for reuse. Two commonly used conventional templates are: 1) a simple assembly of 2×4 dimensional lumber and fastening devices; and 2) a square template made of plywood. Both of these conventional templates require the drilling of holes for anchor bolts and are sometimes removed after the concrete has hardened. This leaves indentations and other marks on the hardened concrete pole base, which later require chipping, patching or sacking of the base. Many times these conventional templates are removed while the concrete is still wet, potentially disturbing the bolts and rebar cage, and thus potentially compromising the structural integrity of the pole base.
Therefore, there is a need for a pole base bolt template that will provide a cost effective and improved means for anchor bolt and rebar cage installation. Such a template would provide an efficient and accurate means of anchor bolt and rebar cage installation, and would not require any additional material to support the template itself and would be reusable. Such a template would be raised from the top of the concrete form to keep the bottom leveling nuts and washers out of the concrete. Such a template would also provide easy access for the installer to create a smooth concrete finish on the top of the pole base at the time the concrete is poured into the form instead of attempting to remove the template and finish the top surface while the concrete is only partially set, or patching or chipping the top surface later.